The Use and Care of Water 



83 



marshes and lakes, or upon the forest with its decaying 

 vegetation, or upon deep beds of gravel and sand, they are 

 a long time getting back to the ocean. 



We can in no way change the amount of rain that falls 

 upon any part of the earth. We cannot call up a storm 

 when we wish it, nor can we send it away when there has 

 been rain enough. But there are many ways in which we 

 can hasten or delay the return of the water to the ocean. 

 Nature shows us some of these. The spongelike carpet 

 imderneath the forest holds the water until it has had time 

 to soak into the earth from which it later emerges as springs. 

 Nature forms basins on the heads of the rivers where a part 

 of the water, instead of immediately flowing away, collects 

 in the form of lakes. From these lakes the water runs 

 away slowly instead of in torrential floods. 



Only a few places in our country have more rain than is 

 really needed. One of these is the region about the mouth 



E. W. Fairbanss 

 The rotting tree trunks take up the rainwater like a sponge. 



